Exodus 12:13. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
As God prepared to unleash the final plague on Egypt, the death of the firstborn, everyone was in danger. Even God’s chosen people needed a way of salvation. A way to be passed over by God’s wrath.
There is no other story like this one in the Old Testament. The Passover is Israel’s defining moment. It is the event of events. The Hebrew scripture will point back to this night often. The feast of Passover will memorialize this night forever. It is never to be forgotten. It is their salvation and therefore it is all of humanity’s salvation.
Passover elucidates God’s eternal plan of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. It proves that we can never save ourselves. That we need something (or someone) to take our place. There is not, and never was, such a thing as self-salvation in God’s story. No self-righteousness. No earning. No achieving. No performing. No self-denial. No cosmic scale weighing our good against our evil. Passover shows us that only the blood of a righteous life can satisfy the justice of God – when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Around 1500 years later, the Apostle Paul will declare that Christ is our Passover lamb. He is our perfect spotless substitute sacrificed for us.
1 Corinthians 5:7. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
It is no longer the blood of a lamb that atones for our sins, but the blood of THE Lamb. Christ’s blood satisfies the wrath of God.
Romans 3:23-25. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Often when we read the Passover story we see God only as the “angel of death.” God in his fury is the one that we need to avoid so that he doesn’t kill us in our sleep. And yes, God does need to punish our sin. Yes, his perfection demands his wrath. But in Christ we can now see that God is also the lamb in the story. The lamb whose blood was graciously spilled for their life. At Passover, God is both the destroyer and the life giver.
And Christian, your union with Christ is a far better than the Passover that the Hebrews experienced that night. God isn’t “passing over” us anymore. Because of our union with Christ’s cross, our sins aren’t just passed over. They are destroyed. Put to death forever. And because of our union with Christ’s resurrection, we aren’t just passed over by God, we are indwelt by God’s life giving Spirit.
Because of Christ, God isn’t moving on. He’s MOVING IN!
“To live is Christ” means that we live beyond the Passover. Our union with Christ’s cross has destroyed our sins once for all. And our union with Christ’s resurrection has placed us into God himself. Not an appeased God who moves on. A pleased God who moves in.
You
How do you see God? Does he just “pass over” you each day? Or has he moved in?
You in Christ
How does your union with Christ’s death destroy your sin not just pass over your sin?
Christ in you
God indwells you. He hasn’t move on past you. How can your life reflect this great salvation today?
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Playlist: Passover.
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To Live is Christ 